An open letter to Cristiano Ronaldo from a Madridista

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Dear Cristiano,

It was the most beautiful day of 2009 when you were presented at Santiago Bernabeu. I still remember your ramp walk and wondered if any other player had been received by the fans in such a grand manner. With each time I have seen you play since then, I have realised that that grand reception was not for a normal player.

When you arrived as a Galactico, we were in shatters. Our rivals had been dominating us and they had the best season in their history. Your arrival gave us hope. We knew we had our own superhuman to compete with their little magician. Let’s be honest, he still dominated you in your initial years here winning Ballon D’ors for fun. But what you brought to us was much more than trophies. We finally broke the jinx of Round of 16. We proceeded to the UCL semi-finals. Finally, there was hope. But a missed penalty and dreams were shattered once again.

”I owe you a UCL Final” – Ronaldo after 2012 UCL exit.
You have not just lived up to your promise, you have fulfilled it more than we expected. We asked for 1, you gave us 4, winning all of them. You became the club top scorer, UCL top scorer and beat Messi to a 4-1 lead making it 5-5 for the Ballon d’Or. You were written off season after season, booed not only by others but by your own but you had other things in mind. Your determination was always bigger than the setbacks.

Real Madrid v Sevilla – La Liga
Ronaldo presenting his Ballon d’Or to the Bernabeu crowd
You’ve always had haters. I remember the flying winger you used to be in your United days. Then they said you weren’t consistent. When you started scoring goals, they said you were a box player. You proved yourself as the best penalty taker, they called you ‘penaldo’. You developed lethal freekick abilities, they started talking about conversion rate. It is evident, the more you succeed, the more the people hate you. I just wanted to tell you that there are people who love and idolise you (not that I needed to say it) more than your haters can hate.

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I do not want to talk about your achievements in this letter, everyone knows them. There’s nothing left for you to prove. I just want to tell you that you are as important to us as you used to be. People tell me you are leaving, I won’t stop you. You have done enough for us to get our love for a lifetime. All I need to tell you is that you don’t need to leave for the lack of love and support. Madridismo is not limited to the whistling people in stands, those in Real Madrid Offices, it expands to a loyal fanbase, to people like me who stay awake till 3 a.m., two nights a week to see Real Madrid play. We have the same amount of love for the players as much as a person in the stands does. And we stand by you through thick and thin. We laugh and cry with the team, with you!

I have seen Iker leave, I have seen Guti, Di Maria, Ozil leave, I have seen Pepe leave. I will be able to take this as well. But the next day, I will wake up with a hope that it was all a bad dream.

Sincerely,

A Madridista.

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